From the Christmas bakery – make your own juicy spice cake & gingerbread spice

There are so many delicacies in the Christmas bakery! It's not just Christmas baked goods that are a must for big and small sweet tooths during the Advent season, the juicy spice cake is also a hit every time. Our simple recipe can be implemented with purchased or homemade gingerbread spice. We'll show you how...

The spicy cake has many names: honey cake, gingerbread or gingerbread from the tin. Grandma's spice cake recipe was originally intended as a cake instead of on wafers or as a gingerbread house as you can find it in the supermarket today. Thanks to its fine spices, this cake tastes like Christmas - even in autumn and spring and is suitable for everyone who loves moist cakes and chocolate!

You need these utensils to prepare the gingerbread spice & spice cake

You need two small saucepans and a large mixing bowl, two saucepans for the water bath, sieve, hand mixer, wooden sticks and a ceramic grater and a loaf tin.

The recipe: homemade gingerbread spice

Ingredients for 1 small screw top jar

• 40 grams of cinnamon

• 8 grams of cloves

• 1 tsp allspice

• 2 tsp nutmeg

• 2 tsp cardamom

• ½ tsp ginger

• 1 tsp anise

1. All ingredients should be dry. If you don't have the spices in powder form at home, you can put them all in a blender or grind them into powder with a grater.

2. Simply mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and pour into a clean and dry jam jar.

The recipe: Moist spice cake with chocolate

Ingredients for a loaf pan (approx. 30 cm)

For the dough

• 130ml sunflower oil (or margarine), at room temperature

• 4 medium eggs, room temperature

• 150g brown sugar

• 200ml milk, room temperature

• 300g wheat flour

• 1 packet of baking powder

• 50g cocoa

• 150g ground almonds or other nuts

• 10g homemade or purchased gingerbread spice

• 90g grated dark chocolate (50% cocoa).

• ½ tsp sea salt

For the cast

• 100 g grated dark chocolate (50% cocoa).

• 1 tsp gingerbread spice

• 1 tsp canola oil

1. Preheat top and bottom heat.

2. Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy. Separately mix milk & sunflower oil. Now use a grater to grate the dark chocolate into small shavings.

3. In a large saucepan, combine all of the dry ingredients—flour, baking powder, salt, gingerbread spice, cocoa, and ground nuts (remember to sieve the flour to avoid lumps).

4. Add the milk-oil mix to the dry ingredients and mix with a hand mixer.

5. First fold in the grated chocolate and then the egg-sugar mixture.

6. Now fill the gingerbread dough into the loaf pan and place in the oven for about 60 minutes.

7. After a chopstick test, remove from the oven and let cool.

8. Melt the dark chocolate in a water bath, add the gingerbread spice and rapeseed oil and mix. After the gingerbread has cooled down, you can now spread the spicy glaze over the cake.

Our tip – try the vegan alternative:

• Not a milk fan? Then use plant-based milks like oat or almond milk

• Replace the egg with 2 teaspoons baking soda

• Instead of dark chocolate, you can use vegan chocolate or stick to the classic spice cake recipe without chocolate